Career
Star Wars Robert Englund was auditioning for a role in Apocalypse Now when he walked across the hall where auditions were taking place for George Lucas's Star Wars. After watching the auditions for a while, he realized that Hamill, his friend, would be perfect for the role of Luke Skywalker. He suggested to Hamill that he audition for the role; Hamill did and won the role. Released in May 1977, Star Wars was an enormous, unexpected success and had a huge effect on the film industry. Hamill also appeared in the Star Wars Holiday Special in 1978 and later starred in the successful sequels The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi. During the time between the first two films, Hamill was involved in a serious automobile accident, fracturing his nose and left cheekbone. False rumors spread that he required plastic surgery on his face. For both of the sequels, Hamill was honored with the Saturn Award for Best Actor given by the Academy of Science Fiction, Fantasy and Horror Films. Hamill reprised the role of Luke Skywalker for the radio dramatizations of both Star Wars and The Empire Strikes Back. For the Return of the Jedi radio drama, the role was played by a different actor. Editions of Joseph Campbell's The Hero with a Thousand Faces (which influenced Lucas as he was developing the films) issued after the release of Star Wars in 1977 used the image of Hamill as Luke Skywalker on the cover. Hamill returned to the Star Wars universe in 2014, when he voiced the ancient Sith Lord Darth Bane,21 in the final episode of the animated series The Clone Wars. He was nominated for a Daytime Emmy Award for his performance. With the acquisition of Lucasfilm by The Walt Disney Company, a Disney press release was announced that there would be more Star Wars films starting with Star Wars: The Force Awakens, which was released on December 18, 2015. Hamill appeared in Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Initially, both Disney and Hamill were coy about whether Hamill would be a cast member of The Force Awakens. In September 2013, Englund, actor and long-time friend of Hamill, said that Hamill was currently working out in the gym. Englund stated, "Mark now – they've got Mark in the gym because Mark's coming back as Luke Skywalker. They've got him doing his sit-ups." It was previously reported that both Hamill and Carrie Fisher had been assigned nutritionists and personal trainers to work with ahead of production. Hamill played Skywalker again in Star Wars: The Last Jedi, released on December 15, 2017. Hamill was critical of his own role in The Last Jedi, stating that he and director Rian Johnson had "a fundamental difference" on the characterization of Luke Skywalker. Hamill later expressed regret for having made those statements and reprised his role as Skywalker for the last time in Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker. The Joker Hamill's role as the Joker began in the 1992 series Batman: The Animated Series and continued to many later spin-off series, video games and films. Hamill received critical acclaim for his performance, which put him in high demand as a voice-over actor of cartoon villains. Hamill also voiced the Joker in three episodes of Superman: The Animated Series, five episodes of The New Batman Adventures, five episodes of Justice League, an episode of Static Shock and a few segments in Robot Chicken. He also voiced the Joker in the 1993 theatrical film Batman: Mask of the Phantasm and the 2000 direct-to-video film Batman Beyond: Return of the Joker. The short-lived The WB live-action series Birds of Prey, based on the comic book of the same title, featured a flashback sequence in which the Joker shoots Barbara Gordon and paralyzes her. This sequence featured Hamill voicing Joker, dubbed over actor/stuntman Roger Stoneburner whose facial structure more resembled the character. The actor's face was shot in the background so as to be slightly blurred. Hamill voiced the Joker alongside his Batman: The Animated Series co-star Kevin Conroy as Batman and Jason Hillhouse as Dick Grayson in a feature of a storyboard scene included in the 2005 Special Edition DVD of Tim Burton's 1989 film Batman. This scene depicted the origin of Robin, which was not filmed because the producers felt it was out-of-place with the rest of the film. Hamill has said that he has voiced the Joker for toys and amusement park rides. Although these jobs did not pay particularly well, he enjoyed even these small roles and admitted being protective of the character, preferring not to let "others sleep in my sleeping bag". he also self-identifies as a "real comic book nerd". Hamill has portrayed the Joker in a few Batman-themed video games, such as Batman Vengeance, the Sega CD version of The Adventures of Batman & Robin, and in Batman: Arkham Asylum. Hamill again reprised the role in the Arkham sequel, Batman: Arkham City. In May 2010, Hamill declared to IGN UK that his role in Arkham City would be his last as the Joker. Some months later, with the announcement of Arkham City, he clarified his statements in the interview by saying, via his Twitter account, "Only said Arkham Asylum would be hard to top, not that I was quitting. On October 19, 2011, shortly after the release of the game, Hamill announced his retirement on his Twitter account, saying "Hello/Goodbye Joker! I've enjoyed every minute behind the wheel of the Clown Prince's crazy car – I'm going to miss him more than I can say!!". On June 2012, WB Games released the expansion pack titled "The Last Laugh" for the video game DC Universe Online, featuring Hamill as the Joker. In 2015, Hamill yet again returned as the Joker in Batman: Arkham Knight with the character recurring through the game as a hallucination.